I really hate the mobility lost when you click-cast with a healing mod, but it may be offset by making less errors. I use mouseovers when I must but I try to keep the mouse free for movement as much as possible, so right now I hit a button to cast, say, Greater Heal, and if my mouse isn't specifying a target, my macro just has to make its best guess as to who I want it cast on. 98% of the time this works correctly. But the other 2% is almost always in a panic situation where a screwup causes certain fiery death.

My issue now is that VuhDo is such a hog I really don't want to run both it and Pitbull, so I'm trying to get it to function for frames in general, which it's not meant to. So we'll see if I can force that satisfactorily. I prefer it to Healbot and Grid so we'll see if I can make it work.

I've always been a fan of people finding what works best for them. The main thing is that you have the information you need, that you can act on it quickly, and that you can customize what you want an alert on.

Several solutions can attain those goals. I use Vuhdo for pretty much all my unit frame functions. I just have the standard Blizzard frame for myself and target up top, for opening up a trade, etc. I don't look up there otherwise.

Some key addons I use to suppliment Vuhdo for watching the state of things: Raven - Replacement for Blizz buff and debuff frames. Castbars - Showing self, target, focus Power Auras, Satrina Buff Frames, and DBM.

If I was going to use something else, I'd fall back into the Grid camp.

Agree with Raven, that mod is awesome. The biggest issue I'm having with my VuhDo takeover of all things frame is that it won't give me much information about my target or ToT, no indicators, not even tooltips. Raven steps in with all the buff and debuff information I could ever want, which will probably make it workable. I'd still be happier if I could get those frames to respond to TipTac though.

Edit: actually you can run Shadow Unit Frames and Grid for less memory combined than VuhDo takes alone, let alone Hogger's less thin cousin, Pitbull. I'll probably go with those plus Clique. Shadow frames are much less customizable than Pitbull, but as I only need enemy frames, I don't need much.

The biggest issue I'm having with my VuhDo takeover of all things frame is that it won't give me much information about my target or ToT, no indicators, not even tooltips.

Maybe you want more, but you did find the check box for Panels, Target and Target of Target, right? Yes, if you want more detailed info of those items, you may want to make a Raven group for target and target of target. I'm generally only interested in the detailed info within vuhdo for party members. Targets I'm just smiting, and additional details come through Raven frames, etc.

If I really wanted detailed unit frames on target of target, I'd probably add another unitframe as well.

Okay, so, I did stop trying to make healing mods do things they're not meant to do, and put some unit frames back in for things like myself, target, and ToT.

Then I spent a few hours each with VuhDo, Grid, and Healbot.

Then I went back to Pitbull+mouseovers.

Not a total waste of time, it's good to keep an open mind and try everything once in a while. Healing mods have some great upsides to them, but in the end, click casting is just too awkward and unnatural for me.

I did change my mouseover macros though, so now all my defensive ones look like this:

No more target or ToT in my macros means no more inaccuracy in casting. I can cast on myself or my partner without ever interfering with mouse turning in any way, and use my mouseovers on raid/party frames. I also redid a bunch of other layout and binding type things, so like any new UI I did get tripped up a bit practicing it last night (we went 6-2 and I was vigorously and accurately blamed for at least 1 of the 2), but overall it rocks the most.

Very nice. It's all about having the information you need, then making your preferred ui and addons work for you. At some point I may try Clique with another unit frame or Grid, but I don't think I'll ever give up click casting.

Not a total waste of time, it's good to keep an open mind and try everything once in a while. Healing mods have some great upsides to them, but in the end, click casting is just too awkward and unnatural for me.

Nonsense. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.

Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

I loaded pitbull and it looked pretty cool. I've checked out most of the unit frames from time to time. Does it let you customize which buffs and debuffs show up as icons, as in a whitelist and blacklist? Also, for me, I have magic effects turn the healthbar blue, disease turn it purple, curses grey, and special raid debuffs I specify red. Can I do that with my own list of debuffs?

Using Clique, just about any unit frame that lets you see the information you need would work fine. Being able to specify one important debuff and have it stand out from any other is a key requirement.

You can white/black list buffs, configure where they're displayed and everything. I'm not entirely sure if you can make the entire unitframe glow with the colour of a debuff but I'm guessing it's possible and I simply haven't found the way to do it yet.

Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

You can white/black list buffs, configure where they're displayed and everything. I'm not entirely sure if you can make the entire unitframe glow with the colour of a debuff but I'm guessing it's possible and I simply haven't found the way to do it yet.

OMG AETHIEN I LOVE YOU! I mean, even more than usual. I had no idea that PB Visual Helpers mod existed. That is going to be so fun.

Dadanox, you can do all that stuff, although I don't find the options for it as obvious as they are in a healing mod. Pitbull is the most customizable mod I've ever found, but the downside is that there's a lot of configuration and I find it takes a lot of tinkering to get it how I want. My frames highlight (not the whole frame, just a glow around the edge) red for disease, blue for dispellable magic, and purple for PW:S which fades to a lighter purple for Weakened Soul. They show me PoM and Renew as icons inside the frame. I don't have special boss debuffs to worry about and I do most of my buff/debuff stuff with Raven, so I like to keep the visual indicators on my regular frames few and simple.

The little squares like Grid will be awesomer though. It's annoying to have to grow icons big enough to see them. With this I'd have room for more inside my frames, which I like to keep small.

Edit: I also used to use this one: Pitbull Aura Bar. You can use it to add extra bars in the frame for various buffs/debuffs. I used that for PoM and Renew instead of icons for a while.

Check the video that I'm going to be uploading sometime today in the PvP forums for how I've set up Pitbull.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

Those little Grid squares are a lot cleaner. I've now got those for PoM, Renew, PW:S, and Weakened Soul. Now my frames only highlight for magic debuffs and disease; the layering there with Shield occasionally bugged me. Plus now I've got separate boxes for Shield and Weakened Soul so I can track them separately when I want to.

Really the only thing I can think of that something like Healbot does that I can't duplicate with Pitbull + mouseovers is automatically track buffs on the whole party/raid. But Raven warns me when I haven't got them and with Fort going on everyone at once now, it's not that hard to keep everyone buffed without the warning.

I can see where Pitbull and Clique (or keybindings) could make a nice healing raidframe. For me right now, I've got Vuhdo exactly the way I want it. I'm going to keep that, rather than try to turn Pitbull into a Vuhdo lookalike.

I'm astonished when I hear another healer say they can't see a particular debuff, people's pets, targets, or who has aggro. There are several good choices out there if you take the time to configure them.

In a raid, pets are people's own responsibility and I'm not going to waste screen real estate on them. If I happen to see one taking damage while I have nothing to do and mana enough I'll heal them but otherwise the owner has enough efficient heals for his or her pet to keep it alive. Same for targets in a raid, takes up way too much screen real estate without giving me anything meaningful back.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

In a raid, pets are people's own responsibility and I'm not going to waste screen real estate on them. If I happen to see one taking damage while I have nothing to do and mana enough I'll heal them but otherwise the owner has enough efficient heals for his or her pet to keep it alive. Same for targets in a raid, takes up way too much screen real estate without giving me anything meaningful back.

I can see that in a raid. In a 5 man, I like to see both. When smite healing, I may choose to smite the lowest health target to help finish them off, rather than sticking to the tank's target. Pets are my call and certainly not a priority. I like to have the information though.

I agree for a 5 man, I have pets and party targets displayed for that too but once you enter a raid it just takes up too much of my screen for what it gives me.

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Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

Grid, and a few extra grid modules for my raid frames. Pitbull4 for target, focus, etc. Clique for casting. Decursive, just to try something new.

I'm thinking back to an earlier time, 2 yrs ago, when I wrote an old grid configuration post. The gui configuration for grid looks good. It also allows for buff, debuff priority which is nice.

I have tried to use Pitbull for everything, but right now I'm not up to the task. Perhaps this compromise will get me closer to what I want. Change can be good.

Edit: I'm pretty happy going back to Grid. Debuff Priority is one thing missing from Vuhdo custom spells. I currently have my Pitbull4 target, etc just above my grid, but clicking stuff causes the target frame to change so things jump back and forth a bit. I think instead I'll make the tank my focus and move the focus frame and focus target above my grid, for easy smiting of the tank's target, without the flipflop that happens while healing and changing targets.

Further observations... I removed decursive. It's redundant for me. The whole reason I started looking at grid alternatives a couple years ago was the quest for a simpler, fairly pre-configured environment. As with most things, simpler out of the box may mean less flexible down the road.

I like the current Grid options panels. It's really pretty easy (especially compared to the maze of options which is vuhdo). Priority on indicators means I can decide on a hierarchy of colors on each indicator. My border for instance shows dispellable debuffs rather than the my target border indicator if they exist. I can make things work exactly the way I want (a center icon and health bar turns red for a raid debuff, for example). I use side and corner icons for things like shields and renew. Countdowns and stacks show.

I'm having fun again. Funny how for a healer, getting what you want out of your raid frames, has a lot to do with your enjoyment.